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The Power of Prayer "If You Ask For Anything
In My Name, I Will Do It." _____________ The secret to effective prayer is faith in Jesus Christ and absolute trust in the Word He has spoken. Know in your heart that the prayer you are asking for will be answered -- know this even at the moment you ask. Believe with all your heart that God has already answered your petition even before you finish praying. As Jesus' disciples stood looking and discussing in astonishment the results of one of His miracles, the Lord told them: "Have faith in God. I tell you solemnly, if anyone says to this mountain, 'Get up and throw yourself into the sea', with no hesitation in his heart but believing that what he says will happen, it will be done for him." "I tell you therefore: everything you ask and pray for, believe that you have it already, and it will be yours. And when you stand in prayer, forgive whatever you have against anybody,so that your Father in heaven may forgive your failings too." (Mark 11:20-25). Jesus attached these two directives, prayer and forgiveness, on purpose. Prayer is related to purity of heart. Our Lord went to the cross for one purpose, to take away our sins so that we could stand chaste before God. Jesus has shown us in the quotation above that the power we receive from the cross is perpetually renewed by forgiveness. The cross is not historic. It pours out God's sanctification continuously. And we have been given power by God to daily bathe our soul in the divine river of atonement that floods from it. As
we forgive others, God perpetually forgives us. This is a dictate of Christ
from the throne of God. In that act of faith the power of our prayer is
intensified. We know this because Jesus minced no words when He said it: You
did not choose me, no, I chose you;
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